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INTEROPERABILITY in eConveyancing was supposed to be fully functional by the end of 2025, but the viability of the system where multiple eConveyancing platforms coexist on the same digital network continues to be dogged by delays.
The fact that the regulator ARNECC (Australian Registrars’ National Electronic Conveyancing Council) is currently carrying out three reviews – two of which are due in late October and another in late 2026 – suggests a successful rollout of interoperability will not happen anytime soon.
That a consensus of those giving evidence at a recent Federal Senate Committee hearing noted ARNECC lacks enforcement powers or enough resources is quite telling.
Even PEXA – whose monopoly over eConveyancing came into question at the hearing and stands to lose most from a competitor such as Sympli – admitted the regulator should be better resourced.
Senator Deborah O’Neill was one of those on the committee unimpressed by ARNECC’s annual budget of between $4 million and $5 million.
Speaking to the regulator’s representatives at the Melbourne hearing, she said: “We’ve got an entity (PEXA) that has been asserted as making $1 million a day, and you’ve got $4 million across a whole year with seven people trying to keep that train in check.”
It’s not just financial clout that is needed, though, as highlighted by Angie Nguyen and Shakila Maclean, who were both speaking on behalf of Australian Institute of Conveyancers.
Noting that the individual State registrars who make up ARNECC do not have enforcement powers, Ms Maclean said: “Their hands are tied.”
Mrs Nguyen added that the challenge was with the States-based registrars and the level of expertise.
“Most of them are government employees who have never practised in industry or don’t have the acumen for the commercial understanding of how a big commercial player, such as PEXA, Sympli or InfoTrack, works,” she said.
“I think sometimes a lot of the aspects are outside of their scope.”
ARNECC Chair Matthew Kamarul did not share this view, saying that members had expertise in eConveyancing processes. But he conceded there were gaps in their “requisite experience in relation to the financial aspects of e-conveyancing transactions”.
He went further, highlighting a glaring gap in eConveyancing regulation.
“There is currently no single regulator with clear remit to oversee an end-to-end eConveyancing transaction and clear authority to effectively regulate all participants,” he said.
“If regulation of the end-to-end eConveyancing transaction rests with several regulators, their roles and remit are not clearly defined. There’s been no overall analysis to ensure that all activities within eConveyancing that need to be regulated are regulated and, if so, by whom.”
NSW Registrar General Danusia Cameron, who was one of those noting the need for federal intervention, also acknowledged resourcing challenges.
“We’re very aware that we don’t have the bandwidth to deal with the issues that confront us, even within the remit that is ARNECC’s,” she said.
“As was mentioned earlier, the regulatory review will be a really significant piece of work, and it will take a lot of time. Part of that is the resourcing challenge.”
For several of the 30 witnesses speaking at the hearing, the reason Interoperability is still delayed is that ARNECC was not set up correctly in the first place.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) general manager Matthew Schroder was another to suggest Interoperability was hampered from the beginning.
“The ideal would have been to create a competitive structure – before you privatised PEXA into that structure – that would have had competition, safeguards and interoperability,” he said.
“We’ve seen that with telecommunications, but it stands to reason that, if you privatise a monopoly – or a near monopoly – without the regulation, it becomes very difficult to unscramble the eggs afterwards.”
For PEXA chief executive Russell Cohen, ARNECC’s oversight is strong enough.
“We operate under a robust regulatory and pricing oversight regime through ARNECC,” he said.
“We are highly reliable, minimising any service disruptions; we have kept costs low for our users, with our fee representing just $140 of the typical $40,000 transaction costs of a home sale; we continuously innovate to enhance user experience; and, with regard to reliance.
“PEXA is classed by the banks in Australia as a material supplier and hence is reviewed under APRA’s Prudential Standard CPS 230 in line with each bank’s respective governance and compliance program. It’s crucial that any changes to our sector build upon rather than diminish what has been achieved. The PEXA platform represents Australian innovation at its finest.”
Sympli CEO Philip Joyce put it to the inquiry that interoperability works the same way mobile phones operate, sharing the same digital infrastructure.
“People on Telstra talk to those on Optus or Vodafone without knowing what network the person on the other end is using, “ he said.
“Currently, all parties to a house sale – usually two banks and two conveyancers – must be on the same network, whether it is PEXA or Sympli. Which is like needing a mobile phone to talk to people on Telstra and a separate one for every other network like Vodafone, Optus and so on. That would be madness, wouldn’t it?”
InfoTrack CEO John Ahern, whose company owns half of Sympli, put it more bluntly, saying: “If we exit, there won’t be another one.”